Akron Beacon Journal...
Precision strike
Editorial 
October 8, 2011 

What did Osama bin Laden think about the drone attacks against leading al-Qaida operatives? As David Ignatius of the Washington Post reported in August, bin Laden viewed the unmanned plane as “the only weapon that’s hurting us.” On Friday, American intelligence struck again, a drone venturing into Yemen and killing Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who headed the al-Qaida outpost there. 

Bin Laden died in May in a raid conducted by American special forces. Al-Awlaki joined a collection of terrorists hit from above. Leon Panetta, then the CIA director and now defense secretary, spoke not too long ago about having al-Qaida on the ropes. The drone attacks have been crucial in pressing for the advantage. The planes amount to more than a lethal threat to leaders of the terrorist network. The presence of the drones makes training more difficult, not to mention communication, travel and recruiting. 

The argument rightly has been made that combating al-Qaida and its ilk requires precision, moral, strategic, tactical and in the choice of weapons. The drone reflects just such an approach. Good intelligence pinpoints the target. The strike reduces, or avoids entirely, civilian casualties. 

The thinking isn’t that drones alone can thwart a terrorist network. Rather, they are one part of the arsenal, along with such weapons as tracking and disrupting the financing of an al-Qaida. All of it is far less expensive than deploying a large military force overseas, putting young lives at risk, the annual tab running roughly $1 million per soldier. That doesn’t include the drain and distraction of seeking to rebuild Iraq or Afghanistan, let alone to win hearts and minds and plant democratic rule. 

A Brown University study reported in June that the wars in those two countries the past decade will cost the country $3.7 trillion in the end. 

The drone represents the way to fight and sustain an unconventional war, one likely to last many additional years. 

No surprise that the drone attacks feature their own set of complications. Al-Awlaki was an American citizen. Thus, the argument has been made that the strike amounted to an execution in violation of the Fifth Amendment, depriving him of life without the due process of law. 

What deserves emphasis are the extraordinary circumstances. Al-Awlaki didn’t just talk about violence, about taking innocent lives. He participated in plots, including the plan to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner and to bomb two cargo planes. He aimed to inspire others to strike, and appears to have done so, notably Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. 

This is a unique war, precedents not entirely applicable. The imperative has been to fight with precision and restraint. That too often hasn’t been the case. It was in killing Anwar al-Awlaki. 

Read it at the Akron Beacon Journal